Arrow To Offer IBM E-Mail Archiving Bundle

The bundle expands the Arrow ECS information life-cycle management program, which includes Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, EMC, Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems solutions and corresponding services.

"Putting the products together in a bundled solution that takes care of a customer issue what we're trying to move our marketing toward," said Eric Williams, executive vice president of the Englewood, Colo.-based distributor's IBM Group. "I think continually our business partners want something new to sell. Many times, you see disparate products that come out that are related, but no one is stepping back to look at how you bundle a solution together to maximize the solution in the market space."

Arrow is also offering training on the e-mail archiving solution. "We'd prefer to do a deeper dive so that they're talking about a new solution from their perspective [and] we make sure they have the proper knowledge and technical assistance," Williams said.

David Browning, CEO of Advanced Systems Group (ASG), an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider, said such a software bundle is a good move for Arrow, and his company is setting up demonstrations of the solution at the region's IBM business partner innovation center.

"We're excited by the prospect of having a bundled solution offering for a core business issue. The way we go to market and I think the way the marketplace will go to market is as a consultant ... asking customers to share pressing business issues," Browning said. "It's a great value statement for a midmarket customer, in the direction the market wants it."

Browning said the bundle will be particularly appealing to midsize businesses looking to make sure they're in compliance with federal regulations regarding e-mail archiving and storage.

The reach of a distributor like Arrow enables it to create solutions and give partners like ASG a go-to product set when customers come knocking with business problems, Browning added. "It allows us, when we hear that business issue come up, to very quickly associate that business issue with a particular solution," he said.